Silly season in politics again. Tell me what the hell the difference is between denounce and reject

[IsItJustMe]

Denounce-transitive verb

1: to pronounce especially publicly to be blameworthy or evil <they denounced him as a bigot>

reject-transitive verb

1 a: to refuse to accept, consider, submit to, take for some purpose, or use <rejected the suggestion>


WTF?

[Johnny__Motown]

1. umm..... a focus group somewhere?

[Jawja]

2. Scoring points on the coattails

of Tim Russert's "gotcha" question.

[tekisui]

33. Double failure. Russert and Hillary.

[sanjiadem]

3. My eight grader knows the difference...

The English language is nothing, if not subtle.

And, yes, I agree the difference is subtle, but not indistinguishable.

[IsItJustMe]

5. Well please then tell me, I have four years of college and I don't know. Maybe I am ignorant?

On edit: Seriously, one to me is as strong as the other. They are interchangeable.

[TransitJohn]

7. Reject is a

shade more personal and emphatic than denounce.

[KittyWampus]

13. IMO wrong, reject is colder and more rational. Denounce carries an emotive aspect.

[Dhalgren]

38. Captain Renaud denounced gambling at "Rick's", but he did not

reject it. That is the difference...

[Forkboy]

4. Nothing, but it gave me a good laugh.

[maddiejoan]

6. Obama originally said in the debate

that he denounced Farrakhan's views, but there was no reason to reject his support.

Then he backpedaled and said he both denounced and rejected.

[IsItJustMe]

10. Thank you for the clarification. I could not understand for the life of me why this seemed to have

become a hot point in the debate.

[EFerrari]

17. No. He said no such thing.

Geezus, it's on tape, why bother to spin it?

He said it wasn't up to him. And it isn't. I can support maddiejoan and there's not a thing she can do about it. That's that old First Amendment again.

He's denounced Farrakhan as soon as he found out about his pastor's connection and Clinton's cheap attempt to trip him up tonight didn't work. Oops.

[maddiejoan]

35. Bullshit

and you're right it is on tape.

[sandnsea]

8. Dumbest moment of the debate

I thought the SNL moment would be, but interjecting herself into the Jewis argument was the definition of silly season.

[Tatiana]

9. But Obama was quick to turn it around and actually ended up scoring a point on that one. n/t

[tammywammy]

14. Yes, Hillary actually made two dumb moments of the debate

I couldn't believe it when she started in on denounce and reject. :crazy:

[AZBlue]

11. To me denounce is stronger.

But that's just me...

[IsItJustMe]

16. I guess it's one of those things that's in the eye of the beholder. I was also thinking that

denounce was stronger, but someone up post said reject was. I have no idea.

:shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug:

[EFerrari]

19. Denounce is stronger. That's why Obama got a laugh from the audience

when he said he would be find with denouncing AND rejecting because the whole exchange was asinine.

[Dhalgren]

40. Denounce is not stronger, reject is.

Captain Renaud in "Casablanca" denounced gambling at "Rick's" - he did not reject it...

[Ravy]

12. Obama had just said that he would not reject Farrakhan's (sp) support.

Denouncing the words, yet still accepting his support was an unacceptable position to many. She gave Obama the opportunity to rethink that and do a 180. I thought it was charitable of her.

[EFerrari]

20. No, he didn't say that. Christ.

He said, roughly, it wasn't up to him to determine who other people support. That's an entirely different statement.

[Ravy]

27. Russert asked him if he would reject the support. He didn't.

I thought Hillary was being nice giving him a chance to think about it and reverse his answer.

[EFerrari]

He said it wasn't up to him to determine who other people supported

and in view of that fact, what would it mean for him to reject anything?

If some ugly nutcase decides to support me, what can I do about it? That's what he meant.

[smalll]

15. Reject is strong, but Denounce is stronger. /nt

[Jamastiene]

18. Hey, you are talking about a lawyer, a damn good one at that.

Did you ever find the definition of "is?" Word definitions are crucial. There is a difference between "renounce" and "reject."

Exercise to teach you the difference:
You ask a woman out on a date.

Would you rather she

a.) quietly reject you
or
b.)loudly and proudly denounce you in front of the whole world?

Take yer pick.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

21. I Thought The Difference Is Stark.

It's a difference between "I don't agree with the positions of the person who endorses me" and saying directly to the person endorsing you "No fucking thank you".


On edit: I'm a bit surprised that it made such immediate and clear sense to me, but so many here and in the media seem to be so perplexed by it. Kinda weird. Seems so readily obvious.

[EFerrari]

26. It's not perplexing. It's the difference between trying to control

what you cannot control and knowing better.

Hillary's unnecessary, ineffective aggressiveness has gotten her exactly *here*. That also should be readily obvious.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

28. I Totally Disagree.

I didn't find her to be overly aggressive whatsoever. In fact, I totally understood her point. But to each their own.

[IsItJustMe]

32. It seemed to me it was more of a game of GOTCHA. But that was through my mental filter. As you say

each to their own.

[HeraldSquare212]

22. I think denounce is even stronger - it is broader, saying someone's bad, as opposed to just saying

I don't want their support. I think Hillary missed that point.

[boston bean]

23. Hillary was pointing that he did not reject the endorsement, he only denounced Farrakhans view.

As a matter of fact, he said he did not reject the endorsement when asked directly.

[Arkana]

24. There would be no point--he can't control it.

[boston bean]

25. She flatly rejected the anti semetic endorsement by a that group in NY. nt

[EFerrari]

30. So she claimed tonight. Is there any evidence that she did?

She didn't even have a real party name in her scripted reply that I could tell.

It's so like her to try to make something out of the nothing that is there. Obama repudiated all of this stuff long ago.

[global1]

29. I Popped Both Words In Microsoft Word Thesaurus And Got The Following......

Denounce - condemn, criticize, censure, accuse, deplore, deprecate

Reject - refuse, rebuff, decline, snub, throw out, discard, disallow, eliminate, deny


Seems to me to be close - but denounce appears to be a stronger word (i.e., condemn, censure, deplore, deprecate)

[DemGa]

31. Simple: refuse vs. condemn... for example:

I reject the charlatan Obama and denounce his treacherous, deceitful campaign.

[sfam]

34. One starts with a "D" and one starts with an "R". Personally I support "D" for Democrat!!! nt

[Evergreen Emerald]

36. Obama said he was not going to reject the support of Farrakhan

And of course he did that because he is milk-toast. Says nothing and stands for nothing.

And Clinton pointed that out--that he can denounce the Jewish hating statements but will not reject his support. She, on the other had took a political risk and said she would have nothing to do with a person who was a jewish hating racist.

McClurkin ring a bell? Obama talks out of both sides of his mouth.

[RoadRage]

37. Obama flipped it on her, made her look silly..

Her point wasn't really about the difference between those 2 words - she wanted him to spew out hate against Farrakan, but he twisted her words on her (like great debaters do!) and made her look really silly by saying that two synonyms have 2 totally different meanings, when in fact they do not.

Clinton would have been FAR better off in that exchange if she hadn't said anything at all.. she took a point that probably would have been a "win" and turned it into a draw at best, and possibly a small loss.

[JimGinPA]

39. I Denounce Hillary Now - I'll Reject Her When I Get To Vote In Our Primary

:rofl:

[Dhalgren]

41. "Denounce" is verbal, "reject" is physical.

[suston96]

42. The difference? Take a course in English Composition at your Community College....

The difference is clear in the OP. And a recent poster described it: denounce is verbal and reject is physical. Very different.